SILATECH

Silatech: 2016 A Year of Successes in Preventing the Radicalization of Arab Youth Through Job Creation

The year 2016 marked a year of significant milestones for Silatech
,
a regional social organization that works to create jobs and expand
economic opportunities for Arab youth. Since its inception, the
organization has worked tirelessly to position itself as a leader in
social and economic empowerment to tackle the alarming rise of youth
unemployment in the Arab region.

By the end of 2016, Silatech succeeded in creating and sustaining more
than 300,000 jobs for Arab youth through a network of more than 150
partners. Silatech’s key achievements included signing strategic
partnerships to create and sustain more than one million job
opportunities by 2020 across the Arab region through its core
programmatic pillars: Enterprise Development, Employment, and Policy &
Research.

The Highlights of 2016 included collaborations to create and sustain job
opportunities across the region. In Sudan
, Silatech signed an
agreement with the Agricultural Bank of Sudan to promote Islamic
microfinance to support youth entrepreneurs and create 23,000 jobs, in
addition to partnering with Social Development Bank to create 20,000
jobs for graduates to start their own enterprises. In Tunisia
,
Silatech signed an agreement with Enda Tamweel to create more than
580,000 jobs across Tunisia via providing support to entrepreneurs to
start and grow their own businesses, and supports the innovative Smart
Tunisia program in enabling 50,000 jobs by 2020. Building on the success
of the pilot partnership program, Silatech renewed its partnership with
Attawfiq Microfinance in Morocco
adding up to 140,000 jobs for
Moroccan youth.

Silatech extended its innovative partnerships to Syria
, where it
collaborated with Qatar Red Crescent to provide on-the-ground training
for displaced youth to develop their skills and provide 1,700 jobs. In Palestine
,
Silatech partnered with Talal Abu Ghazaleh Group to launch “Khadamati”
portal to allow craftsmen in Palestine to advertise their products and
services and connect them with customers and markets, and an MoU with
UNRWA to promote employment opportunities for youth working in the
construction sector. The organization, along with its founding partner
of Ta3mal portal- Microsoft, announced their collaboration with Rwanga
foundation to launch the second edition of Ta3mal.com in Iraq
, a
regional online employment portal that helps Arab youth and job seekers
find support to transition into the world of work.